


Press Your Number

by alia_lee



Category: SHINee, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 13:54:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11163228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alia_lee/pseuds/alia_lee
Summary: Jimin learned how to pick the wealthiest and most beautiful person out of a room and how to garner their attention in just a few seconds. He had made a name for himself as being one of the heaviest handed but well dealing players in the game and Min Yoongi was never far behind. They made for quite a powerful pair. Had things been different, Jimin might have found himself falling in love with the older male but they weren’t. Instead his world came spiraling to a halt on the evening of December 24th at a Gala held by a CEO.Without another word Lee Taemin leaves Park Jimin standing alone on the dance floor with his world spinning on end.





	1. Axis

            Park Jimin knew people. The Park family had connections. They lived in a world of luxury found through dirty money and even dirtier dealings. Park Jimin grew up pudgy faced and cute surrounded by the beauty of dirty business and it always put him in awe. Beautiful women flanked by several sly men each vying for her attention and powerful men tossing cash at poor unsuspecting people like they didn’t have a care in the world. He never lost his wondering at seeing people do crazy things and make crazy gains. It was thrilling and when he made his first cold hard cash sucking some gangster off in the bathroom only to be met with his hyungs sly grin; he felt more pride than he could imagine.

            He loved watching men and women alike fall to pieces under him begging to him and promising him all the wealth in the world for just one moment of pleasure. He enjoyed controlling every little aspect of people and watching them stumble through his little games. He loved the feeling of a firm grip on his shoulder as the older boy, just two years his senior, loomed behind him smiling serenely in vicious pride. He knew he wasn’t the pudgy faced cutie that he used to be and he certainly knew that his body did things to people despite the bad name that flew around the upper circles of the clean slated.

            He’d had senators, mayors, and even billionaires in his bed and they all left him with considerable more wealth than he had before. Before him the Park family worked in drugs and crime; dealing to the lowest of the low and only rarely the highest paying customers. Now, under him and his hyungs they quickly rose to supplying to the demand of the rich and wealthy. They played the game of politics and influenced more elections than they cared to count.

                        The Min family had just as much money and just as much influence in the lower rings. They supplied the other half of whatever the Park family couldn’t. Their rivalry had been legendary to everyone but themselves. While many thought that hatred boiled between them like a hellish inferno the truth was that the Mins and Parks were one in the same. They dealt in the same business and moved in the same circles They played the same game and when their young heirs became inseparable friends at a young age the two families knew that there was only one way to go; up.

            Min Yoongi had taught Jimin everything he ever needed to know about how to seduce a man or woman and leave their bed a couple thousand dollars richer the next morning. He taught him all the right ways to pleasure someone and torment them. Jimin learned how to pick the wealthiest and most beautiful person out of a room and how to garner their attention in just a few seconds. He had made a name for himself as being one of the heaviest handed but well dealing players in the game and Min Yoongi was never far behind. They made for quite a powerful pair. Had things been different, Jimin might have found himself falling in love with the older male but they weren’t. Instead his world came spiraling to a halt on the evening of December 24th at a Gala held by a CEO.

            His bright orange locks were freshly dyed and on full display for all the world to see and his kohl lined eyes were making their first track around the room when he spotted a group of several boys sitting just outside the tight ring of the adults who were talking business. It all bored Jimin; Yoongi would be the one prowling the older males but this group seemed a bit less interested in business and more interested in their drinks. He could see five of them all looking a bit older than him, perhaps Yoongi’s age or higher, and they were mouthwatering. They spoke of privileged upbringings with a lot of money to fling around. The one that sat at the center of the table was smiling serenely with curled up eyes and a wide smile that just looked misplaced on his positively sinful body.

            “The heirs your target tonight Jiminie?”

            Jimin turns a startled eye to one of his close friends and Yoongi’s long time ‘friend’; Jung Hoseok. What he fails to realize is that the gorgeous blonde haired member of the five boys had turned his eyes toward them at exactly that moment to study him in confusion. “They’re always a fun time Seokie; you should know that pretty well yeah?” Hoseok laughs brightly and tosses a warm arm around Jimin’s shoulders as Taehyung catches their eyes from across the room.

            After so many years growing up in certain circles Jimin has made several very close friends as well as a lot of not so close friends that he had slept with a time or two. There were seven boys including himself in their little circle of gossip and intrigue. They compared what lays were the best and what their everyday lives entailed. The only two that were not involved in flings anymore were Jin and Namjoon who had skirted around one another for years before they finally got together.

            “The crazy boy had been eyeing the Choi boy all night. They’ve spoken a few times and even shared a stall once or twice. Tae isn’t satisfied yet. You know how he is.” Hoseok grins lightly down at Jimin while plucking a drink off a tray to hand to him. “Better stay away from one for now. Surely Kookie will be after him next to get even.”

            “Noted.” Jimin smiles into his champagne when his eyes turn back across the room to lock with a curious gaze. “However, I wasn’t interested in Tae’s catch of the night. I’m much more interested in his blonde friend.”

            “Lee Taemin?” Hoseok whistles softly before grabbing another drink for himself and taking a quick swing of it. “Good luck with that one Jiminie. He’s notoriously hard to get a chance to even talk to let alone hook up with. The four boys with him are more overprotective than even Jin-hyung and Yoongi-hyung were of Kookie. He’s their maknae.”

            “Well every maknae has a rebellious phase right Hobi-hyung?”

            Jimin grins seductively at his friend before sitting his now empty flute on a nearby table and keeping eye contact with the blonde as he slides into the throng of dancing people. He expertly takes up the hands of a surprised older woman who laughs in delight when he expertly dips her. Taking all those years of contemporary and ballroom dance classes while Hoseok snuck into hip-hop classes had paid off well.

            He quickly broke the contact he had made with Lee Taemin to focus all his charms on the older lady only to be exchanged a few songs later for a much more muscular form. Jeon Jungkook smiles cockily at him before dipping his body fluidly surprising crowd of women that had started cooing at them. Jimin laughs bright and purely which was something he had never lost living this life. Kookie was their maknae, once wide-eyed and bunny like. He now towered over most of them and had grown into a gorgeous adult that broke hearts everywhere. He and Taehyung had been dancing around one another for years and they had played enough games of cat and mouse with one another to be on Jimin’s list nearing Yoongi and Hoseok of couple that should just get together already for fucks sake.

            “You know fucking whoever Tae choses tonight won’t make him angry, right?” Jungkook smirks and twirls his body out with unbelievable skill. Jimin moves back into his arms while adding a bit of a sensual sway to his hips. Any man in the room would be begging to fuck him senseless after this dance. “We’re all expecting it of you.”

            “And if I’m not planning that at all hyung?” Jimin smirks and flicks his head the opposite way while gripping tightly to Jungkook’s neck. He slowly turns his head to graze his nose across the apple of Jungkook’s cheek. “What if I told you I figured out the best way to push Tae-hyung’s buttons?”

            “I’d ask you who you’ve chosen.”

            “Kim Yugyeom.” Jimin smirks in pride at his dongsaeng because Jungkook certainly learned a lot from hanging around him and Yoongi all these years. Jin would probably shout about them corrupting his baby but Jimin would deal with that later. “Dancer…adorable ’97 liner who just so happens to be an incredible delectable boy. Easily accessible and even easier to play off considering he’s been in love with the Thai boy over there for three years.”  

            “Mind if I cut in?”

            Jimin turns his smoky gaze to none other than the ’97 liner in question who was looking at Jungkook with a small smile gracing his lips. “Of course not Gyomie…I’ll talk to you later hyung.” Jimin scoffs at the obvious dismissal but lets it slide because as far as he can tell Jungkook might have befriended the adorable boy that was now dancing with him to some hip-hop song.

            “Looks like you were ditched.”

            “Hmm, it would seem so.” Jimin laughs softly knowing that the other boy had played right into his hands alright. “It’s alright Jungkookie needs to make other friends outside of our group.”

            “So he’s a friend?”

            “He’s our maknae.”

            The slightly taller male, and only slightly, hands him another drink with a soft smile. It makes Jimin’s stomach twist in a way he’s not experienced with. This man was cute but his eyes were heavy and mysterious. It was intriguing.

            “I’m Lee Taemin. You are?”

            “Park Jimin. You’re my sunbae-nim.”

            Taemin smiles indulgently at Jimin while sipping his drink and his eyes flicker quickly to the dance floor where Jungkook was laughing happily while dancing perfectly in sync to a girl group song that just so happened to be on the playlist. It was probably Hoseok’s doing if he knew the boy well enough or Jacksons.

            “Do you like to dance Jimin-ah?”

            “Yes. Do you?”

            “Only sometimes.”

            Jimin doesn’t get another word out when a slow song starts before he’s being guided back into the crowd of couples now dancing around the room. Some had more skill than others and some just swayed together. Jimin however was completely surprised when the other male took the lead and began moving about the room as if he commanded it. Jimin can only stare up at the other in surprise as he’s lead around the room in one of the most skilled dances he’s had to date.

            “Cat got your tongue Jimin-ah?”

            “N-no just surprised is all. You’re a really great dancer Taemin-sunbae.”

            The older chuckles and the sound races straight to Jimin’s gut twisting it around further into the vortex. “And here I thought you were used to playing this game Jimin-ah. Apparently, you’ve made quite a name for yourself. A little vixen is what Minho-hyung said. Said your friend had nearly the same reputation as you but was a little more to his liking.” Taemin tsks softly down at Jimin while guiding him into increasingly more complicated steps all without his smile faltering.

            “Taehyungie?”

            “Yes that was his name.”

            Jimin swallows thickly having never been in this situation before. Usually no one ever called him out on his behavior. Most felt blessed to be even invited to his bed considering his sexual prowess being something a big deal in the upper circles. He was said to have a mouth better than heaven and hips that moved like sin. He’d take you to heaven whether he was giving or receiving.

            “Sunbae…”

            “You know I wonder if your hips really do move as well as they say and how you’d look spread across my bed.” Taemin leans forward to run a dominating hand down from the back of his neck to land at the small of his back forcing him a step closer. He can feel the heart of an aroused blush forming on his cheekbones as the older chuckles quietly in his ear. “Too bad I won’t be seeing that tonight Jimin-ah. You’d look positively ravishing, don’t you think?”

            “Sunbae…I-I don’t understand.”

            “That’s the point, isn’t it? Maybe if you’re a good boy hyung will reward you next time.”

            Without another word Lee Taemin leaves Park Jimin standing alone on the dance floor with his world spinning on end. Needless to say, after pulling himself together, Park Jimin left that night and fucked a person into his hotel mattress without caring to remember their name or face. He didn’t care what Lee Taemin thought or how lovely it might be to have the older pressing him into his mattress late into the night ravishing him. Instead he chased after a hollow orgasm and left thereafter.

             


	2. Prince

            “You’re a hard man to track down.”

            A slender hand slides a drink, looking like hell, into his hands. His eyes trace up the slender wrist until he fully takes in the blond-haired man perched on the arm of his chair. His blond locks were much brighter than before meaning they had recently been dyed and they were part beautifully to expose his forehead and perfectly styled brows.

            “I wasn’t exactly looking to be found.” Jimin sips at the drink and revels in the familiar burn of liquor that settles low I his stomach. The beer he’d nursed for the past hour or so of waiting was left forgotten and warm in favor of the offered sip of sin. He was surely going to be more than bussed before his meeting if he drank this as fast as the other man had. Lee Taemin had gulped down his drink like it was water and he was a thirsty man. Jimin definitely did not follow the line of his throat as it bobbed. “You’re pretty lucky then.”

            “Your friend talks a lot.” It was simple enough and fairly true. Taehyung was unusually loose lipped around that Minho guy he’d been engaged with recently. Taehyung also knew that every Thursday night around this time Jimin met up with Yoongi and Namjoon for their usual round of drinks and business talk. Usually they left with some friends, Namjoo excluded, and made a good time in either Yoongi or Jimin’s apartments. “Figured I’d slip out before he got even louder. Minho has that way with thing.”

            “Hmm.”

            Jimin purses his lips at the thought of his close friend and fellow ’95 liner. He wasn’t exactly pleased with his friend and the choices he had been making recently. Taehyung was being stupid and pushing Kookie past boundaries he hadn’t pushed the younger before and he was hurting their youngest friend immensely by toying around with this Minho guy and flaunting it in Kookie’s face. Taehyung had practically driven Kookie into the polyamorous situation that he was now a part of which was unusual for the particularly jealous young boy. Yugyeom and his lover Bambam were in a very loving relationship with one another but they shared their bed and bodies with Jungkook whenever he desired and the situation with Taehyung found Kookie there more than Jimin cared for.

            “And here I thought I was the one you wanted to fuck Jimin-ah.” Smooth lips brush past the shell of his ears and Jimin just barely suppresses a shiver. Jimin almost chuckles at the slightly irritation and disappointment that it just barely hidden by Taemin’s sultry tone. If only Lee Taemin knew how often he’d been one center stage in Jimin’s thought in the last two weeks since Jimin first laid eyes on him. He had been short exceptionally short tempered and had taken more than twice as many bodies to bed to get the idea of Lee Taemin out of his head. It did not work at all. He’d even become the one receiving instead of given several times thinking he was just itching to be dominated. Hell, Yoongi had offered to have a bit of dirty play time to help Jimin get the edge off.  He and Yoongi rarely did anything together since their tastes often differed. Lee Taemin was there around every corner of his mind even when he was seeing stars behind his eyes. Nothing would kick the desperation to have the other man’s body next to his or in his bed, preferably naked. “Was I wrong Jimin-ah?”

            “And here I thought you were smarter than that.”

            Long fingers knot in his hair and tilt his head backward sharply to meet narrowed eyes and a raised brow. His heart jumps to his throat in the most pleasurable way possible. “Good boys don’t act like brats Jimin-ah.” Taemin leans dangerously close to Jimin’s lips, so close he can almost taste the alcohol that the older must have been drinking. “Someone didn’t listen very well.”

            Jimin sags against the sofa with a large pout when he’s released with little more than a dangerous smirk. He wanted so much more and the older man fucking knee it. Jimin wanted to be pinned to the sofa right then and there and have his entire body destroyed by the other. He’d purposely thought of being told to be good every time another man was slamming into him or every time he felt the wonderfully tight heat of a woman. “If you wanted a good boy you wouldn’t be here right now; would you?” Jimin stares out at the dance floor and is reminded of the last time they had seen one another. He remembers just how hard the older had left him and even the faceless person he’d taken home that night hadn’t quenched his thirst. This dance floor was much more his style. It was a throng of sweating bodies poorly dressed and wearing clothing made for easy access. Lee Taemin looked like a golden god in front of all of them with the lights reflecting off his glistening skin.

            The wall of bodies seemed to pulsate in the seconds that it took for the older man to answer him. “No of course not baby boy. I’d never expect my prince to be perfect. How dirty he must have gotten in the past two weeks.” Jimin gulps quietly when a strong hand grips the back of his neck and long fingers rub circles in the flesh just above his exposed collar bone.

            “You have no idea.”

            Taemin chuckles darkly and moved toward the mass of bodies that had caught Jimin’s attention for so long before he had arrived. Jimin is quick to follow him glaring strongly at the pretty young bird that is already trying to get her filthy little paws on Lee Taemin. Jimin did not enjoy sharing his conquest, another reason he and Yoongi rarely did anything together anymore, and tonight would be no different. Lee Taemin was off limits until Jimin got his fill of the older.

             “Is my prince jealous?”

            “More like boys like me don’t share.”

            “Good.” Jimin is tugged roughly into the other man’s personal space and his senses are invaded by everything Lee Taemin. “Because you belong to me now prince.”

            Jimin gaps when sharp teeth go from grazing his throat to biting down possessively on the skin. His hand scramble and claw at Taemin’s arms as his head falls backward offering the older more room to do as he pleased. Soft throat groans pass through Jimin’s lips especially when he realizes just how many beautiful little blue bruised would be flowered across his skin tomorrow morning. He loved sporting a fresh array of bruises. Lee Taemin’s would surely be just a beautiful as him.

            The song thrums like a heartbeat around them and Taemin chokes when Jimin leaps into action plundering his all too willing mouth. Jimin’s fingers grip into his blonde locks as he tangles their tongues together and grinds against Taemin’s hips. He can feel the arousal of the older pushing against his thighs and Taemin gapes in awe when Jimin drops onto his knees in the middle of the dance floor and begins palming his growing erection. His eyes drop into thin slights when Jimin leans forward and unzips his pants with is teeth while his hands pull out the older male’s hard member. The air is warm but not nearly as warm as the heat that quickly engulfs his length.

            Jimin hums around the older man’s length and know that he needed to make this quick because Yoongi and Namjoon would be arriving soon and if he wanted to leave a last impression on the older and make his come running back for more than he had better make this the best blowjob Lee Taemin had ever been blessed with. Yoongi and Namjoon didn’t need to know just how interested Jimin was in this blond god. They only needed to know that Jimin was feeling significantly more relaxed already. Jimin liked his play things well enough but he was starting to become increasingly aware that Lee Taemin was not in the same category as the rest. He was something completely different and Jimin wasn’t sure he was ready to share that information with the other two just yet.

            Jimin was smirking like a cat that caught the canary when Yoongi and Namjoon walked in. Taemin looked slightly more ruffled than he had when they had entered the dance floor and his eyes kept straying back to Jimin’s ravished lips like he was trying to memorize how they felt around him. Yoongi found him in the crowd with startling ease and he studies Jimin for a long moment before lifting one brow in question.

            A body passes in front of them and Jimin gasps in surprise when a hand palms him as Taemin pressed against his back slotting his member right between Jimin’s cheeks. “It seems like our time here has come to an end prince. Friday there is a bit of a party at Minho’s. Your friend will already be coming. Your friends are more than welcome to join you so long as they understand that you, prince, belong to me.” Jimin moans softly as teeth latch onto his neck once last time as a sort of departing reminder that, yes, from this moment forward Park Jimin belonged to Lee Taemin until one of them got tired of the other.

            “Oh believe me, if I’m there, they won’t be anywhere in sight.”

            “Good.”

            Taemin disappears into the crowd and Jimin chuckles and moved through the crowd with ease. Yoongi and Namjoon are already sitting at their usual table. Yoongi inspects the two liquor glasses sitting on the table with interest.

            “Found a friend Jiminie?”

            “Not at all hyung. He’s just a fun play thing.”

            “Of course.”

            Neither Namjoon or Yoongi mention the color already blossoming around Jimin’s neck like a bright red collar despite noticing it immediately. Secretly Namjoon thought that it was probably time that Jimin settled down because he was reaching the crashing point fast than Yoongi who was already standing on the precipice ready to fall right into Hoseok’s arms. Jimin had fucked more people in the last two weeks and been more angry and foul tempered than Namjoon had ever seen him and Namjoon had been in this world long enough to notice those as the signs of someone becoming bored or finding someone who had caught their interest.

            “Excuse me sirs, someone bought you all a round of drinks.” Yoongi’s brows rise in surprise. Jimin laughs softly and Namjoon graciously motions for the boy to continue because he was definitely new and certainly intimidated by the three of them. He was endearing. If Jimin wasn’t so thirsty for Lee Taemin he might consider the young boy as his newest conquest but he pales drastically in comparison. “The guy said to tell you that he’ll see you around; whichever one of you is Jimin.”

            Namjoon and Yoongi begin laughing loudly and the poor boy looks positively startled.

            “Thanks kid. You can go now.”

            “Wow.” Jimin glance over at a startled Namjoon and a quiet Yoongi. They are both looking at him a bit startled and Jimin is momentarily confused before he realizes that they must have expected him to at least toy with the blushing boy. “Not interested in boys tonight Jiminie?”

            “No…I already fulfilled my quota for the night.” Jimin flashes them a cocky grin and leans back on the sofa. “Besides, I don’t feel like being the teacher tonight. As cute as he was, I’m a bit more interested in being completely wrecked.”


	3. Wrecked

            The party came faster than Jimin thought it would and he’s standing outside a massive upscale hotel that had been rented out in the heart of Seoul just for this event. In Busan, they definitely did things differently. Things were a lot less flaunted and a lot more business inclined even for his age group. If he could gage anything from Taehyung’s expression Daegu was likely the same. It didn’t derail him though because tonight he would be at the mercy of Lee Taemin and just the thought of it had his glove-like pants tightening. The music practically pounded out of the speakers and it brought a grin to his face. It was crowded here and it was a mass of privileged bodies and predatory smiles that filter toward the pair of them.

            Taehyung looked like a god with his white V-neck that hung well lower than his collar bones, peach colored leather jacket, and skin tight ripped jeans that had more holes in them than they did fabric. His boots laces neatly up to his calves and screamed for someone to dominate him and thoroughly wreck him. Jimin knew exactly what he would be getting up to tonight; as much as he disliked it.

            “You must be Tae and Minie’s play things.”

            A short skinny man with highlighted light brown hair was looking at them as if he was cataloguing their existence and checking to see if they live up to the hype. “They’re in the VIP section. You two should get your fine asses up there before they find something else to play with.” Jimin snorts startling the man. He knew better than to think he didn’t have Lee Taemin wrapped around his every move. The other had likely already spotted him in the crowd and was trying to decipher who would make the first move.

            “Thanks for the information, Jonghyun-hyung, but princes don’t do the searching. We’re not easy.” Jonghyun’s eyes widen at the startlingly sexual growl that filters through Jimin’s parted lips as his eyes hood over. Jimin loved playing games and his game with Lee Taemin was likely to come to an explosive end tonight. Normally Kim Jonghyun would have been one of his prizes for the night but even he, as gorgeous and breathtaking as he was, paled in comparison to Jimin’s prey. “Let’s go reel our boys in Taetae, give them something to drool over.”

            Taehyung laughs his deep throaty laugh that always has people swooning at his feet and wraps a long arm around Jimin’s shoulders. “Will do Chimchim. Nice meeting you again Jonghyun-hyung, see you around!” Jimin smirks as eyes follow them as they blend easily into the crowd of bodies that part for them in awe. Jimin finally catches the hot gaze he had been waiting all night on starting from a floor up. He winks deviously and drops low in front of Taehyung before his best friend easily catches on and pulls him back up in a quick snap to mold their bodies together in a dance that was as easy as breathing to the two of them. Jimin bares his throat with a throaty laugh as Taehyung meets his beat with practiced ease. The song is dirty and throbbing and just the right pace for their favorite pass time of cat and mouse. Jealousy did wonders to bring your prey to you.

            When the song ends, they maneuver toward the bar while lightly brushing off grabby hands reaching for them and down two quick shots in rapid succession. As much as Jimin had not been happy with his best friend it felt nice, relieving, even to be side by side playing this game together for what might be one of the last times. It was thrilling and he understood that as much as he loved and wanted to shelter Jungkook that this time, earlier today, the younger boy might have gone too far. Taehyung needed this.

            A tight wrist catches Jimin hands and he grins devilishly before leaning his head back and grinding back against the body holding him close. “I thought I told you prince…” A rough set of teeth dig into his neck. “…that you belong to me now.”

            “Oops, is someone jealous?” A deep growl reverberates through his neck and he laughs breathlessly at the sound before grinding back into the body behind his again. From the corner of his eyes he sees Taehyung being pressed against the bar with Minho’s tongue already laying claim over his mouth. “Don’t worry hyungie…princes like me always come back for what we really want.”

            Taemin smiles against his throat and grabs his hand tugging him back toward the VIP section. For once Jimin follows behind obediently after the older male and isn’t too surprised to find his friend already up their settled on Minho’s lap like he belonged there in the first place. He truly did look good as a trophy for the rich man. Taehyung was so gorgeous playing with people. Jungkook was a foolish boy sometimes but then again Taehyung wouldn’t be here if the same couldn’t be said for him. For what it was worth Minho was feeding him bits of chocolate dipped fruits at a leisurely pace while intermixing the fruit with heated kisses.

            Taemin settles and for a moment Jimin almost thinks the older expects him to sit down beside him. He almost laughs at the elder’s shocked expression when Jimin lithely straddles his thighs and takes Taemin’s plush bottom lip between his teeth. Long fingers dig tightly into his hips before reach a bit further to cup his ass expertly and pull him just a tad bit closer. Jimin drops his hips a few times with the newest beat blasting through the speakers.

            “Someone picked a feisty one.” Jimin only releases the lip between his teeth to turn around and face the newest addition to their section of seating. He’d messed around enough in circles to know Kai from other circles. “Park Jimin…nice catch Taem. And it looks like Minnie-hyung found himself the other half of the 95’ duo.”

            “And how do you know them Kai?”

            Jimin loved the underlying jealousy that lingered in the tightening of Taemin’s hands around his ass. The possessiveness was sure to leave bruises again. He relished in it. “Hmm, oh word travels Taem. They’ve quite the reputation. Surprising they set their sights on you old men is all.” Taehyung laughs whole heartedly while flashing his brightest and boxiest grin. If Kai knew as much as he let on than he surely knew that twenty-two and twenty-four were fairly low in the range of ages that laid as conquests under their belts. They had both brought men and women to bed more than twice their ages since they were teenage boys. 

            “Don’t worry hyungie…you’re not too old to please me.”

            Taemin growls low in his throat and guessing by the throaty groan released beside them, Taehyung had murmured a similar sentiment. Kai laughs good naturedly and takes his seat beside another male who instantly fits himself into Kai’s side. Jimin knew without having to look that D.O. was already pressed right against Kai and gathering all of the, now quiet, man’s attention for himself. Kai had always been so whipped that he’d been completely off their radar for fear of upsetting both of them.

            “My little prince certainly lives up to one half of the rumors.” A smooth hand snakes completely around his waist as he refers to the earth-shattering blow job he’d received during their last encounter. “I wonder just how amazing he truly is spread out all for me to devour.” 

            Jimin gasps quietly at the idea of being so dominated by the older man. He wanted it like nothing he’d ever wanted before. The need burned even hotter in his stomach than any liquor ever would. “Let me show you then. Take me home and devour me whole. Truly show me who I belong to Lee Taemin.” He was almost surprised when hand tightened around him and hoisted him into the air with startling ease.

            “My pleasure little prince.” A few eyes stray to them as he’s carried away from the group and toward a back entrance. All the while a playful little grin is on Taemin’s face and his mouth occasionally drops little nips along Jimin’s neckline. “Home.”

            The car they slide into is incredible nice; nicer than some of the forty-something elites Jimin had slept with in the past. His eyes didn’t have very long to roam before he was otherwise preoccupied with a mouth claiming his and fingers moving across his exposed skin at an alarming rate. The drive seems so much faster than what Jimin would have liked because in what seemed like minutes he was being drug out of the car into an underground garage and toward a back elevator. Once in the elevator he’s pressed against the nearest wall and his neck is attacked like it held the secret to eternal life. He can only claw his hands at the arms and back of the older male as they wait for Taemin’s floor to come up.         

            Lee Taemin’s apartment was nicely furnished and cleaner than most their age. Jimin much preferred the bed to anything else as he lay panting underneath the slightly larger man. His skin was already shinning with a thin sheen of moisture by the time they finally connect and Jimin’s eyes flutter shut in the pure explosion of pleasure that wracks his body with every thrust of Taemin into him. His voice certainly carried and jump up to the highest pitch that it had possibly ever gone during sex. The pleasure was overwhelming and it crashed on him like waves the longer he was pushed up the bed by harsh thrusts.

            He felt himself being split in half and he would happily be torn apart if it felt this amazing. His entire body felt on fire and he could do nothing more but beg for release. Taemin happily obliged and brought him closer and closer to the precipice before tumbling him over in the most delicious and bone deeply pleasurable way possible. His screams echoed in his own ears as he came down from his high.

            When he came around he wasn’t even sure what time it was or how long he’d been passed out or slightly conscious for. It was late and his body was cleaned up in an incredibly attentive way and it left this heart feeling oddly light. There were strong arms wrapped tightly around his waist and a naked body pressed tightly against his back. It felt warm; comfortable. He could only sigh and curl further into the warmth.

            “Hello little prince.”

            “Hyung…”

            “How are you feeling?”

            Warm lips pepper kisses along the back of his neck making it hard to think. He was surrounded by the intoxicating smell of Lee Taemin and he’d happily drown in it forever if it felt this good. His voice felt scratchy and broken but in the best possible way. “Tired…like you’ll have to carry me around everywhere tomorrow.” Jimin laughs but it dies in his throat when the older man stiffens behind him.

            “Jimin-ah…you don’t know do you?” Jimin carefully rolls over into his back as the older man props his head up on his elbow. His eyes are filled with worry and concern. Jimin can feel his heart dropping into his stomach like a heavy weight and he already feels nervousness creeping in. “Fuck. Jimin-ah I’m leaving tomorrow. This party was for me. I’m going abroad to prepare to take over my father’s company. I’ll be gone for two years.”

            Jimin’s entire world feels like it falls from orbit and is hurling toward the ground at an alarming pace. He’d let someone in other than the six boys he’d relied on his entire life. He’d finally done what they had been hoping he’d do for years and the moment he thought it would all work out he’d be stupidly mistaken. He’d never felt so much absolute hatred for himself before. “How long?” The words sounded hollow and foreign to his ear; as if he hadn’t spoken them at all.

            “Two years. I thought you knew Jimin-ah. That's why…”

            “That why you decided to fuck around with my head before leaving?”

            The words were fierce and harsh and even surprised him. Taemin looks taken back for a moment before his eyes harden in anger. “Because what you normally do isn’t the exact same thing?” Jimin flinches back away from the other as if he’d been slapped and he can feel the tell-tale sting behind his eyes. He needed to get out of here. He refused to let the other man see him so weak.

            “No. I tell people it’s all sex for me. It’s always a once and done thing. I never let them even get the notion that I care. I sell myself out so they can have pleasure outside of their miserable lives for one night so my parents don’t have to.” Jimin pulls on his pants and top in record time. His heart is thundering in his chest. The flood gates are threatening to break free. “I have never played with people's feelings and made them think that it was something that it wasn’t.”

            “Jimin!”

            “Fuck you Lee Taemin!”

            “Wait, don’t go. Come on Jimin, I’m sorry.” Long fingers wrap around his wrist as he’s shrugging on his leather jacket that Yoongi had bought him for his last birthday. His hand was just wrapping around his phone to pocket it and get the hell out of there. “I thought that you knew! I thought you just wanted to play around; that I was just another one of your games!”

            “Funnily enough you weren’t.” Taemin released his wrist like it burned and Jimin chuckles dryly while heading toward the bedroom door. Taemin follows after him after tugging on a pair of briefs that he’s flung somewhere earlier. “Have fun hyung. Enjoy it wherever the fuck you’re going.”

            “Jimin!”

            “Fuck off!”

            Jimin pulls on his shoes and slams the door on his way out just for good measure because fuck it hurt. His chest ached and his eyes were finally spilling over. He needed…he needed…he just needed Yoongi. He needed Yoongi to tell him what an idiot Lee Taemin was for not seeing him as the amazing talented little ball of perfection he was. He needed to get out of there and have Yoongi make him forget all about Lee Taemin and his stupid fucking heart for as long as it took. He picked up after three rings and Jimin had never been so relieved.

            “Hyung.”

            “Jiminie…what’s wrong?”

            “Can you come get me?”

            Jimin can hear sheets rustling on the other side of the line and Yoongi must have been asleep. It was pretty early. He can hear the other voice in the room asking what was going on and Yoongi’s gruff voice waving their worries off. He knew without having so say anything that Yoongi knew something was wrong if he was calling him this late at night.

            “Are you okay? Where are you? Why are you crying?”

            “J-just can you please come get me.” Yoongi’s voice is quietly telling the person that they needed to go. That he had something he needed to attend to; that it was urgent. The other person whines but one snappy phrase from Yoongi had them snapping back and probably leaving. “I’m in the upper side by that club you used to like. J-just get me there, yeah?”

            “Alright kiddo, I’ll be there in like ten minutes. You’ll be okay until then?”

            Jimin hums the affirmative and hangs up when he finally gets to the street and begins making his way toward the club his hyung used to go to when they first met. Yoongi had always had expensive tastes and the club catered to only the most wealthy clients.


	4. Reunion

            Paperwork was strewn about his desk and a slight irritation was quickly turning into a full migraine behind his eyes. His contacts burnt and he severely wanted to kick himself for not packing his glasses in his bag this morning. His fingers tug idly at his tie to loosen it as the door slides open and a lithe body slithers into the room before closing the door once more. Jungkook was dressed in a neatly pressed designer suit with the jacket strewn across his flexing arm and his gold watch glistening in the low light.

            “It’s time to go hyung.” Jungkook, who had rarely ever called him hyung, had somehow over the course of the past two years grown up into a remarkable young man with a number of valuable talents that kept in at the top of his game. Not to mention it didn’t hurt that his boyfriend was a world-renowned fashion designer and model. “You know how angry Jin-hyung will be if we’re late.”

            “I know Jungkookie.” Jimin runs his fingers through his freshly dyed locks, compliments of Yoongi’s insistence, and fixes the paperwork on his desk once more before tucking the important files into his side drawer and locking it. Slowly he walks across the room to the closest that lined the wall and tugs a freshly pressed dress shirt from the wardrobe. The sleeves and collar have just enough ruffle to be pushing the line of femininity while producing a wholly masculine effect. Jin had bought him the shirt while in Paris a few months back and it was one of the first times he thought to put it on. He changes out his shoes for a pair that he had ordered to match the style he was going for. They were sleek and fit him well and his form fitting pants only served to make him appear even cleaner looking. With practiced ease, he puts his hair back into the neatly pushed back waves he’d styled this morning and places his favorite rings along his fingers.

            His travel jacket is a second thought as he and Jungkook leave the large office building and he tosses it over his shoulder before joining Taehyung in the car with Jungkook not far behind. The party was already in full swing when they finally arrive and Jimin is greeted with a glass of champagne and someone taking his jacket off him to hang up. He sips at his drink and makes idle small talk with business partners as they gush over the couple bestowing them with empty compliments. Namjoon and Jin were a hot topic ever since their parents announced their engagement to one another. It was about as close to getting married as gay men as anyone could get at the moment and they were already the talk of the circles.

            They looked as if nothing could touch them in their small circle of one another. It was heart warming but also bitter sweet. His heart hurt at the thought that of all his friends he was still the loner, the seventh wheel, lost to feelings of heartbreak that had not lessened in the least. He was not angry anymore or hurt. He had resolved his feelings inside himself but no one ever compared after that night. Short fucks became uninteresting and the more he tried to shake the feeling off the less the bodies in his bed quelled the ache in his chest. Instead, they did the exact opposite. His heart only broke more with each new body to grace his sheets. It had all come to a head when Taehyung and Yoongi had found him in his bathroom leaning against the porcelain claw foot tub with his skin rubbed raw and angry scratch marks lining his back. His sheets were torn haphazardly off the bed and his room was a chaotic mess. It still reeked of sex and it made his stomach heave.

            He hadn’t had a proper sexual relationship since that night. Don’t get him wrong, he certainly tried, the nice young man they had set him up with had been the closest he came to being in a relationship. Nothing worked. After too long he decided that he’d rather throw himself into work than suffer the idea of forever being alone. At least the best thing that came out of his cationic state had been Taehyung coming to his senses and ending whatever he had with Minho to fully employ his time and efforts into garnering Jungkook’s love. Of course, Jimin didn’t blame any of Taemin’s friends for his heartbreak. They all just assumed it was a game to the two of them. Taehyung didn’t see it that way and blamed the entire group for his friend’s distress.

            “Don’t look now Jiminie but Taetae’s favorite people are here.”

            Yoongi had lightened up considerably since he had officially gotten together with Hoseok and it made Jimin smile to see his oldest friend genuinely happy. His sarcasm, however, had yet to lessen because for some god forsaken reason Hoseok found it endearing. “Because you like them enough to pass judgment on Taehyungs feelings.” Yoongi frowns at the comeback and Jimin is surprised he doesn’t deny the accusation but Yoongi had been overly protective of Jimin since the beginning of this entire fiasco. He’d been the only one of their friends adamantly against setting Jimin up on dates and allowing him to go out, get trashed, and fuck a random stranger with a pretty face. Yoongi knew enough to know how much it destroyed Jimin inside no matter how fine he looked on the outside.

            “I’m not having this argument with you kid.”

            “Then don’t.”

            Yoongi scowls at Jimin’s harsh tone and Jimin knows that he might have crossed a line of respect but at the moment he didn’t care. His migraine was still present and he really didn’t want to have the conversation again. “Someone is snippy today.” Jimin grins brightly at the smug grin on Namjoon’s face as Jin wraps him in a tight hug. Jin and Namjoon had always employed the policy of not asking or forcing Jimin. They let him deal with his issues and when he needed to he would come to them. Yoongi and Taehyung had been too blunt with dealing with the issue and too close to the subject so when Jimin felt like he was having a hard day he went to his oldest hyung and Namjoon. They would sit with him and let him talk without passing judgment and without a word unless he asked for it. That’s not to say he didn’t share his emotions with Taehyung and Yoongi because certainly, he did.

            “Hello, Jin-hyung and Joonie-hyung. Congratulations.” Jin is grinning lovingly at Namjoon because their previously unspoken of relationship is now out and in the open. “Look at everyone praising the two of you like gods when they used to sneer at you very names. It's definitely a step in the right direction.”

            “Yah! You brat!”

            Jimin laughs brightly as Namjoon pulls him into a light head lock. He felt happy when he was with his friends and sometimes it was enough to feel like he was normal again. Like he wasn’t still wallowing in the anger and resentment of being seen as nothing more than a game to a man that he had been ready to give up his life of being a player for. Maybe it was karma that he found someone he truly liked and having them tear his heart apart.

            “Ah, we finally found the happy couple!”

            Minho’s voice was as deep as it had been two years ago but he seemed happy with his fingers knotted tightly around Jinki’s thin waist. Jonghyun was already happily hugging Jin and Namjoon and offering them his sincere congratulations. He and Kibum, the diva that the man could be, were overly apologetic for their friend’s poor choices and had reached out to Jimin very quickly after finding out how everything ended. Jimin had never told his friends but he had often joined the pair or even the four of them for lunch or dinner after that.

            He even struck up and odd friendship with Minho and Jonghyun. His love of singing and music definitely helped with that. Key loved dressing him up as much as Taehyung did and it was refreshing to be babied a little. He was in the middle of the ages in his friend group and often he got forgotten about in favor of Taehyung of Jungkook; which he didn’t necessarily mind.

            Yoongi watches with suspicious eyes as Minho unwraps himself from Jinki to pull Jimin into a tight head lock. “Ah, my favorite little short person! Ah Key, you’d be proud of his outfit!” Jimin laugh and Jonghyun slaps Minho because everyone knew that Jonghyun was their favorite short person but Jimin had become a close second. Kibum’s eyes are quickly directed toward Jimin and by this point, Yoongi looks irritated.

            “How posh.” The harsh words are accompanied by a sly smirk and then Kibum is tugging haphazardly at Jimin’s sleeves and fixing them once more. “Really you’re like a child Jimin-ah. You can’t even dress yourself. Still, you look lovely. Whoever bought this has good taste.”

            “And how do you know I didn’t buy it?”

            “Please Jiminie, we all know you didn’t buy it.”

            Everyone surrounding them laughs softly and Jimin can see the gears rapidly working in Yoongi’s head piecing together what he was missing all along. Obviously, Jimin had made friends outside of his little group and Yoongi had been none the wiser. Jimin knew that the fact that he didn’t tell Yoongi would be what bothers the older more than anything.

            “I’d say he looks quite princely.”

            The group falls quiet at the quiet drawl from behind them. Minho’s eyes widen comically and had Jimin not been frozen in his spot he would have laughed at the way Jinki casually reaches out to close his lovers mouth. Kibum is the first one to gather his composure as he lays a gentle hand on the small of Jimin’s back. Jimin can feel eyes burning into him. “Taem, your parents said you wouldn’t be able to make it.” Jin and Namjoon nod along with Kibum obviously surprised by the boy’s appearance. It wasn’t like he wasn’t invited because all their parents were closely tied by their businesses.

            “My plane flew in earlier than expected so I thought I’d tag along.” Taemin holds a nicely wrapped package out to Namjoon who takes it naturally. It was as if they were all trying to hard to be normal because they knew Jimin might be having a mental breakdown. He was, of course, he was, but he could act naturally until he could breakdown in peace and quiet. “I picked something up for the two of you before I returned home. They’re Venetian glass.”

            “Oh thank you! Joon-ah, you should probably give those to me before you break them.”

             Namjoon carefully hands the box off to Jin who disappears to place them on the table with the rest of their gifts. The circle falls silent for a long moment before Yoongi sighs softly and glances at Jimin. “Do you want to go get drinks Jiminie?” Yoongi was giving him an out and Jimin knew that but he refused to be seen as weak in front of Lee Taemin. No, right now he was going to make Taemin feel like the biggest shit in the world. He was going to show Lee Taemin that he didn’t need him and he didn’t want him; even if he looked absolutely stunning in the black button up he was wearing with his hair dyed a dashing shade of raven black.

            “No, thank you hyung.”

            Yoongi nods and disappears into the crowd to corral the rest of their friends, meaning Taehyung, to possibly save Jimin later and get him as far away from Lee Taemin as physically possible.

            “How have you been Jimin-ah?”

            Jimin turns his eyes away from where Yoongi had disappeared to find the other had given Taemin a bit of space to talk to Jimin and he was both grateful and irritated by them. Couldn’t they see he wasn’t ready to be alone with Lee Taemin. His mask wasn’t fully up and it was quickly going to crack with how Taemin was looking at him.

            “I’ve been fine.”

            “Are you and him…”

            “No, he’s with Hoseok-hyung.”

            “Oh.”

            They both fall silent and Taemin runs a nervous hand through his black hair before releasing a deep sigh. The silence that descends upon them is thick with all of the unspoken things that the past had dragged up. Jimin desperately withed things had been different in the past. He wished that he could be so unbelievably happy that his hyung had finally returned. He wished that he could just fall into the easy world of flirting and toying around that he had found a niche in so easily with Lee Taemin, but he couldn’t.

            Lee Taemin represented everything Jimin had once wanted and the one thing he had ever desired fully that had been ripped from his hands before he even had a chance to fully grasp him. It was like the blossom that flew out of your hand before you could fully understand or relish its beauty. There was something devastating and filled with so much karma that Jimin wondered if what he had done in the past added up to him deserving what his heart had encountered. He had played with enough bodies and never tried to play with minds but that never meant he never hurt someone.

            “If you’ll excuse me hyung, I believe I see my father and grandfather…”

            “Oh, of course, Jimin-ah.”

            As Jimin blends easily into the crowd as if he had never been there before, Taemin only stares after him in mild concern. His brows were furrowed with worry and his plush lower lip was being attacked by his top teeth with fervor.

            “I take it you haven’t told him yet?”

            “No.”

            “Does your father know…about you two?”

            “Yes.”

            Minho frowns at the slight anger and self-hatred that fills the tone of voice that Taemin was using. Minho knew better than most, except for maybe Jonghyun, that while Taemin had thought his short-lived relations with Park Jimin had been games he also admitted just how much the idea of it meaning only that hurt him. He’d confided in Minho a week after departing from Korea that his heart had been broken the moment Jimin had stormed out of his apartment with tears in his large eyes. Lee Taemin had, in the course of the short time he spent chasing after Park Jimin, allowed the younger boy to totally capture his heart and lock it away somewhere that Taemin could not find it. Park Jimin had stayed with Lee Taemin even now.

            “And what did your father say, Taem?”

            “That I have never disappointed him more...” Taemin turns his eyes away from the stunning beauty that is Park Jimin, who is now standing at the beverage table beside a man who isn’t nearly as stunning. He must get his looks from his mother. “He said if the Parks find out I’m as good as disowned.”


	5. Arranged

            Jimin wasn’t feeling very up to going into the office today after his impromptu meeting with Lee Taemin Friday evening. In fact, he’d spent his entire weekend cooped up in his apartment trying desperately to get his shit together and he almost, almost, refused to allow a worried Kibum and Jonghyun to come and visit him. He’d hoped his friends would leave him to wallow but the pair had dragged him up and out of bed and Kibum even threatened to throw him into the shower wearing the custom-made Gucci pajamas that he was wearing. Rude.

            They’d forced him out of the house and into a spa for a bit of pampering before Kibum gifted him a new pair of Italian leather loafers because he bought them and hated them the moment they were on his feet. He said he much preferred them on Jimin. In Kibum language this also meant he bought them and never even tried them on because he knew they would look lovely on Jimin.

            Now, if he knew he didn’t have an important meeting with his father and grandfather this afternoon, he’d skip out on work and take a drive into the countryside to visit his mother’s grave. Sitting in the small countryside cemetery that laid on her family’s property always brought a sense of peace to him that very few other places could. He could remember being a small child and running along the grass hills chasing after his mother and rolling around until the shins of all his jeans were covered in mud and grass stains. His mother’s dress would match him well and she’d only laugh softly while she scrubbed at the stains. Park Hyori was an incredibly loving woman with a way of standing her ground that Jimin had always admired.

            The gorgeous woman, of only nineteen when she became a mother, adamantly refused to allow her son to be raised in the underworld of Seoul’s politics and crime. Instead, she’d brought her young son to her grandmother’s house in the country and raised him just as she had been raised in Busan. His father, who was madly in love with the mother of his child, would drive the two hours outside of Seoul every night to spend the evening and night with his newborn son and lover. Jimin had grown up happy and incredibly well cared for. The day his mother fell ill was the worst day of Jimin entire life and it nearly shattered his very existence when she passed on from a prolonged illness.

            When he permanently moved to Seoul with his father he quickly met his friends and grew accustomed to his father’s unusual lifestyle. Jimin, however, never had quite the same stomach that his father did for the violence and terrors that came with running the underground part of the business. His father had always claimed that he had inherited his mother disposition and that it was something he should never lose.

            The office was working like usual when he finally slipped out remembering the past that felt like it belonged to someone else now. Jimin was the little boy that ran around in the grass and bruised up his knees happily with his mother and Park Jimin was the Seoul business man who does whatever it meant to see his family name succeed. His father and grandfather still ran most of the underhanded dealings underground but they were happy to allow Jimin to do as he pleased in his life. Still, Jimin knew that this important meeting was a follow up of their previous discussion about marrying him into a well-off family to tie their company to another. Since Yoongi’s relationship with Hoseok and the tying of the Jung company to their partnership, they’d established a much better income. With Jimin’s marriage and the merging of a fourth family, the company would be more stable than ever before. There were only very few options and Jimin respected his father’s judgment enough to allow the pair of men to do as they wished.

            What he did not however expect was to see the Lee family sitting patiently across from his father and grandfather when he arrived with his secretary trailing behind him. Yoongi was not but two steps to his left talking quietly with the secretary about what days Jimin would be needed and what days he and Hoseok could steal the young CEO. “Sejun-ah, Yoongi-hyung, I’ll return to you after I’ve finished my meeting to follow up. You may both use my office to finish this disagreement you’re having just please don’t distract the rest of the workers with another one of your arguments. I’ve had enough complaints about you two and _your_ boyfriend to last me forever.”

            Yoongi looks affronted for a moment as if he would never equate to the level of loudness his boyfriend could produce but one long look from Jimin sends the pair of them, grudgingly, toward Jimin’s office. He’d already completed a majority of his paperwork for the day because it was piled pretty high on his desk when he came in this morning. Sejun was a lot of help but sometimes he could be a bit too much.

            “Are you busy right now Jimin-ah?”

            Jimin’s head instantly turns toward his grandfather and father who he rushes to acknowledge and moves to take his seat which conveniently is right across from none other than Lee Taemin. The older male refused to even glance up at him. This was certainly an odd turn of events. “I’m not so busy that I cannot make time for something as important as this. Please forgive my tardiness; a boss’s job is seemingly never done I’m afraid.” It was all business to him now. This was the only way he’d be able to keep his mask firmly in place without the fear of breaking down in shock and anger. Yoongi was definitely going to break something when he finds out about this match. No wonder Kibum bought him that new pair of shoes.

            “You’ve got such a hard working young man here Jihoon-ah.”

            Jimin’s father smiles happily with pride at the compliment to his young son. Sadly, Jimin’s younger brother had been sickly and passed on young, only a year or two old at the time, so Jimin was his only child. Jihyun’s passing had devastated Hyori and Jihoon’s wife had never recovered from the loss of her youngest child.

            “Yes, hyung, it is among the many qualities of his mother that he possesses.” Jimin glance at his father in surprise because it wasn’t often that the older man brought up his late wife. Jimin knew he resembled his mother both in looks and personality but that it often hurt his father to see that resemblance every time he looked at his son. “I assure you that I feel our sons will make great matches for one another.”

            “Oh, we were not worried in the least.” Lee Taemin’s mother is just as lovely looking as her son with full lips and tender eyes. Jimin can see just where he got his softness from but h is also a good mixture of his parents. Unlike Jimin, Taemin resembles both of his parents a great deal. “When you sent us the offer of marriage to your wonderful son we were overjoyed. We had heard from many just how alike he was to Hyori; that he rivaled even her kindness and warm hearted nature. It is such a pleasure to finally meet you Jimin-ah.”

            Jimin accepts the hands offered to them with a gentle smile. Many people had told him the same things about his mother and perhaps that was what lead to his personality resembling hers. He wanted to remember her so much as a child that he tried to retain whatever childlike innocence that had been left when she passed on. He wanted to be like his mother so that in some odd way he could keep a part of her with him.

            “Thank you. Lee-ssi, did you know my eomma?”

            “Oh yes! We went to college together. Hyori-ah was one of my closest friends.”

            Jimin nods quietly and drops his head to allow his father and grandfather to hash out the details of their arrangement. At this point, his mind was once again straying to his late mother who would now be gone a little over ten years in just a month. The day of his mother’s death was creeping ever closer and it was obvious that the date was weighing heavily on the young CEO. His calendar was already marked off for that day and the following day so he could spend the day with his ailing grandmother and grandfather in Busan. His great grandmother had passed on some years ago and her house still remained in Jimin’s name. He would never sell the place of his childhood.

            “We should schedule some outings for the two of them so that they can be seen together dating before their engagement is announced to the public.” Jimin’s father nudges him when he realizes the faraway look on his son’s face. Jimin tunes in at least enough to hear them suggest an outing for next month. “Would this weekend be okay for a trip together? Jimin-ah already has the weekend marked off but there isn’t anything other marked.”

            “Of-”

            “No.”

            “Jimin! You already have off. Is it really so disagreeable-”

            Jimin turns fiercely angry and affronted eyes on his elderly grandfather. While he had agreed with his son marrying Hyori he had never understood the attachment Jimin had with his mother. “Appa, now you know Jimin goes to Busan that weekend.” His grandfather turns on his father before offering the Lee family apologetic eyes.

            “I’m sorry for their sudden disposition. My grandson would be happy to have an outing that weekend.”

            Jimin stands sharply startling even Taemin into looking up at him. His eyes are narrowed sharply and he wants nothing more than for the tears gathering in his eyes to go the hell away. He will not submit to his grandfather this time. Not for anything in the world. That weekend was his weekend away. It was his only weekend of the entire year where he felt like he was truly at peace. He slept in the home that his mother grew in and inhaled the fresh smell of the ocean that he always associated with his mother and therefore home.

            “With all due respect, grandfather and Lee-ssi, I won’t give those two days up for anyone.” Jimin doesn’t bow his head like he would have had it been anything else. He was not a stubborn man anymore. He usually only dug his heels in when it was imperative that he do so. His mother was his only irrationality…and perhaps Lee Taemin. “Not on the anniversary of her death and you know that. Now if you’ll all excuse me, I have to use the restroom.”

            Jimin storms out of the room feel his anger swelling at the idea that his grandfather was so adamant that he give up his moment of remembrance for his late mother for some arranged marriage with a man he’d really rather forget.

            “Jimin-ah!” Jimin pauses and turns his surprised eyes to see none other than Taemin running down the hallway toward him. His beautiful hair is flopping around lightly and his eyes are filled to the brim with care and worry. He bends over slightly when he reaches Jimin and bows in defeat for a short moment before talking again. “I understand why you want that time for yourself…I would too all things considered. Your grandfather, he seems unlikely to let up on the idea of us going together somewhere. If it would be agreeable to you I can join you in Busan. I’ll allow you your time to mourn and give you space but that way our families will be appeased and you can spend your weekend as you please remembering your mother.”

           


	6. Choices

           It was a completely different feeling in Busan than it ever had been in Seoul. The air tasted different and the feeling of the people moving about was quite different as well. His grandparent's house smells heavily of food and the salt of the sea breeze that blew through the windows. They had been in contact with Jimin and were overjoyed when he had mentioned in passing that his fiancé would be joining him on his trip to Busan. His elderly grandmother had giggled softly at the petulant tone in his voice when he explained the situation before demanding that the male he was supposed to bring would be staying with them. She could certainly be a conniving and underhanded old woman when she wanted to be and the gossip circle she participated in with her fellow elderly women was unreal. Even from Busan, she knew everything that was going on with him even when he doesn’t want her too.

            Taemin was oddly quiet the entire drive to his grandparents home along the sea. It was an older place, one of the original houses built on the outskirts of the large city, and was reminiscent of a different time in Busan history than what many saw today. His mother’s family had always been well off, the biggest reason his grandfather never found a reason to deny his mother and father’s marriage, and their house showed that. It was by no means a massive manor the likes of which he lived in with his father growing up. It was modest by Seoul standards but it spoke of old money built long before his grandparents had been born into this world.

            “Your mom was chaebol wasn’t she Jimin-ah?”

            Jimin glances up. It usually took people much longer to figure out about his mother’s family heritage. Though not from a direct branch of being the corporate heir his grandfather had been the second son of a previous heir and his mother a chaebol by birthright. His cousin now was training alongside his grandfather to take control of the massive company after the last heir had died without giving birth to a child. Kyuhyun was a wonderful cousin to have. He was always polite and well raised for the job of taking over the company that his mother’s family had built from the ground up. Although started in Seoul where his great grandparents had lived for most of his young life until they passed away, his mother’s parents had relocated to Busan when his great uncle had taken control of the company.

            “Well not entirely. My grandfather was though.” Jimin steps up the gravel driveway after tipping the driver of the car that had been sent to pick them up from Gimhae. “They’re originally from Seoul but my mother was raised here.”

            If Lee Taemin did not already look impressed then he certainly looked surprised when the steely eye of an older man who he had seen at plenty of massive business parties in Seoul greeted them politely. His eyes, upon falling on his grandson, instantly soften into a warmth that stunned Taemin. Most chaebols were hard edged and cold even to their own children.

            “Yeobo! Jimin-ah is here with the boy he’s supposed to marry!” Jimin laughs brightly at his grandfather’s appraising gaze as it travels over Taemin. Jimin was not sorry in the least that his ‘guest’ seemed uncomfortable by the gaze. In fact, Taemin could see the glee in Jimin’s eyes. “He’s not bad, honey. I bit thin and a bit too pretty but…he’ll do.”

            They enter the room right inside the door meant for receiving guests and the house is quite clean for being so old. An older woman moves into the doorway. Her face is worn with age but there is a motherly warmth that settles there despite the clutch of pearls strung about her neck. It reminded him a good bit of his own mother and grandmother. He can also see just where Jimin gets his looks from considering he’s nearly a spitting image of the small elderly woman.

            “Chiminie…look at my little boy all grown up!” The woman tugs lightly at Jimin’s cheeks and looks him up and down once more before tugging his head down to her level to plant a kiss on his forehead. “Have you two eaten yet? Your grandfather and I just finished up lunch but surely I can make something up for the two of you! Marriage is a big deal you must eat enough not to be cranky with one another! Well, come along then!”

            “What about our bags ma’am?”

            Jimin’s grandmother glances back at Taemin in surprise, possibly not expecting him to speak so soon after meeting them. “Don’t worry dear. Yeobo you wouldn’t mind putting them in their room would you?” Taemin instantly raises his hand in an embarrassed wave.

            “Oh no, sir I couldn’t possibly let you carry all of our stuff for us.”

            Jimin’s grandmother laughs brightly and it sounds nearly the same as Jimin’s just not as beautiful and worn from age as well. “Why don’t you two share the burden then and carry them up. Then you can meet your fiancé and me in the kitchen.” Lee Taemin seems just as flustered as he had been since arriving here. Jimin simply giggles and wraps his grandmother’s hand around his elbow like a true gentleman. They mumble quietly to one another as they pass through the doorway and walk further into the house.

            The kitchen was warm and comfortable with ceiling fans blowing cooling air onto Jimin’s face as he entered. The smell of fresh food wafts to his nose and he takes it all in greedily. His grandmother had obviously been baking again. “So Chiminie, you don’t appear too happy at the prospect of marriage. Was it arranged?” The elderly woman is already busying herself at the counter preparing something for a quick meal. Jimin wasn’t foolish enough to know he wouldn’t be quizzed as soon as he was alone with her. He wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

            “Yes halmeoni, it was arranged for me.” The woman nods shortly and continues cutting up vegetables that were likely from the market nearby. “There could be worse matches and with Yoongi-hyung dating Hobi-hyung in earnest now, I knew appa and halabeoji would be pushing for my engagement to someone at the very least.”

            “And what of love Jimin-ah? Do you at least feel you could love him or like him?” His grandmother turns around to meet his gaze dead on. She was quite a scary woman, not unlike what his mother had been, and she had butted heads with his grandfather on more than one occasion when it came to Jimin. At one point she had fiercely demanded that he come to live in Busan with them for at least each summer because he wasn’t ‘going to be some delinquent’. “You know if you don’t want this we can put a stop to it.”

            Jimin turns his gaze toward the back patio and stares wistfully out at the gardens that he had spent nearly his entire summer in. He’d sit out there and read or practice dancing the hip hop moves Hoseok had been showing him during the time he spent at home. He’d often put his hand to work sketching or drawing the gardens; drawing was something his grandfather found useless and thus Jimin ‘lightly’ discouraged from doing so. “I know halmeoni. Taemin and I…it's just complicated.” His grandmother smiles knowingly and it pains Jimin to know that she could read him so easily. He wanted nothing more than for her to have no worries about him.

            “Your mother said the same thing about your father.”

            “I’m sure my parents were not in the same situation.”

            Their conversation is cut short by Taemin and his grandfather coming into the kitchen talking lively about something or another. His grandfather was an incredibly kind and good-hearted man. “Ah yeobo, our Jimin-ah chose well on this one. He’s very polite; not uptight at all.” Jimin laughs at the pleasant smile on his grandfather's slender face. Jimin and his mother had gotten the rounded cheeks of his grandmother instead of his grandfather’s slender features. He barely looked like his father’s side of the family at all.

                 “Is that so?” Jimin’s grandmother smiles serenely as if she had not just been having a very serious conversation about putting an end to the engagement that was barely a few days old if anything. Reporters were already all over them the moment they stepped into the airport together and arrived together in Busan. Though it did help that his grandfather here had some sway on how the reporters were allowed to follow him and that extended to Taemin in the least. “Jimin-ah why don’t you and Taemin-ssi go out to the gardens for a bit. I’ll bring your lunch out when I’ve finished it.”

                Jimin nods quietly and leads the older man out into the gardens intent on trying to ignore him as much as possible. It was childish to still retain so much anger, Kibum had told him as much a long time ago, but he couldn’t help it. For all he knew Taemin was only agreeing to this marriage because he had to not because he wanted to. It was an obvious statement because really, Jimin wouldn’t be too keen on marrying one of his former flinger either if they thought something meant more than what it did at the time.

                “Your grandparents are nice. They love you very much.”

                “Yeah, they didn’t even want me to live in Seoul when my mother died.”

                “What made you stay?”

                “You mean who.”

                Taemin raises a curious eyebrow at the unruly tone that instantly colors Jimin’s voice.  Jimin didn’t often like to think about what his life would have been like had his grandmother and grandfather gotten their way when he was a child. He would have grown up in Busan surrounded by a loving family and carted around like a Prince from event to event. They would have allowed him to make friends outside of business connections and to play games like all of the other children instead of sitting in on meetings like he was forced to in Seoul. They certainly would not have let him fall into the kind of things that he did after befriending Yoongi. Hell, they might not have allowed him to even be friends with Yoongi.

                “I take it your father was controlling?”

                “No not at all. It’s my grandfather that holds the leash in this family.”

                “My father is quite like him in that aspect. He’s not very happy with me to say the least.” Jimin raises an eyebrow at the softer tone that worms its way into Taemin’s voice. His eyes betray him and flicker to the older boy who has stuffed his hands in his pockets as they strolled through the back gardens. It’s breezy in the shade of the trees and smells lovely. It’s almost a perfect moment. “I told him initially that I didn’t think a marriage between us would be the best of ideas. He was furious, and rightfully so I suppose, but when I told him why- about what I had done- he was even angrier. To my parents- well more so my father- you’re the perfect addition to our family. You are everything that I am not in his eyes. And when I told him that I had more or less fucked with your head before leaving the country I didn’t think I would make it out of that conversation alive.”

                “So what am I to take of this?”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Are you telling me you don’t want to marry me?” Taemin’s eyes widen at the sharpness in Jimin’s voice that he had yet to hear before. Jimin’s eyes were narrowed and there was a frightful kind of anger boiling in their depths. Before he can even get a word in, Jimin begins speaking once more; slow and deliberate. “If you don’t tell me now and I will walk into that house and make sure all of this is called off. Those two people in there have the ability to make this all go away for us if that’s what you want. You might not have had a choice in the matter but I certainly do and I won’t force you into a marriage if that’s not what you want Lee Taemin. If it comes down to it they’ll say that they don’t agree with the matching and that will be that. You won’t be the one in trouble and neither will I.”

                Taemin is speechless for a moment at the sheer force behind Jimin’s words. Of course he never put it past the younger man to have this kind of authority but Jimin had never shown it to him before. Jimin was not someone who was easily messed with. He was certainly the type to cut you down bit by bit until you had no choice but to kneel in front of him and relent.

                “Do you even want to be married to me, Jimin?”

                “I told you I had a choice in this. You obviously did not. So now I’m giving you one.”

                “Well obviously you didn’t if you’re still standing here!”

                Jimin turns around at the shout and glares for a moment before his eyes soften. Taemin’s chest was heaving his fingers clenched into tight fists and his eyes locked on Jimin as if afraid that he would run in any moment. “Despite it being sprung on me, I had the choice to turn around and walk right back out that door when I walked into that meeting Taemin. As foolish as it may seem, I didn’t. I made that choice knowing what I was walking into. You make yours. I won’t hear another words of this argument until you do.”


	7. Possessive

                Taemin bounces lightly on the balls of his feet. The mask was digging uncomfortably into his cheek and was sure to leave a mark by the end of the night. Of course, Key would have dressed him to compliment his date. The mascaraed ball was in full swing when the limousine carrying his four friends and his fiancé pulled up to his apartment complex. He slipped in and noticed the not so subtle looks flashed both his way and Jimin’s. They were both dressed impeccably.  They truly looked like the princes that they were masquerading to be. There was so much Taemin wanted to say to Jimin fearing that it would be their last time spotted together at an event.

                His time allotted to make his choice was dwindling fast than sand sifting between his fingers and he wanted so badly to be able to do what was right for Jimin and walk away but he was a selfish man who wanted what his heart desired to be by his side forever.

                “Smile Taem you look like someone killed your favorite pet.”

                Taemin glances to the left to look at his date and fiancé and wonders if the other had heard Minho’s comment as the older and much taller man wrapped a muscular arm around his shoulders in a loose squeeze before moving to wrap both of his arms around Jinki. If this was truly the end then Taemin was going to act like it was his last possibly night on this earth to be with Jimin. He’d spend every waking moment trying to show the younger that he was in it for the long haul. That he was there for them and by his own choice not because it was expected of him.

                Jimin’s hand is warm when he reaches forward to link their fingers together. The flashing of cameras increases tenfold and he can see the surprised look in Jimin’s eyes when he wraps the hand holding Jimin’s around the younger shoulder in a tight hold. Jimin glances up at him and the crowd of reporters instantly start shouting out questions and taking their picture. Taemin doesn’t answer them as he gently guides his date up the stairs following their friends. He does, however, lean down so that his lips are level with Jimin’s ears.

                “You look stunning.”

                “Thank you- hyung.”

                Taemin grins brightly down at the younger who had a bit of flush to the apples of his cheeks. The room was already filled to the brim with people when they deposit their coats and enter the main space of the gala. There are hundreds of South Korea’s most wealthy lining the main ballroom. Some are dancing with one another dressed in luxurious costumes reminiscent of Victorian England and others are settled at tables or milling around talking in groups most likely about business. Taemin follows his hyungs to sections of rounded tables where they take their seats and order drinks from one of the wait staff who pass by. At their backs is another table in which Namjoon and Seokjin are sitting together eating food off a shared plate.

                Jimin grins brightly over at them and walks over to make small talk. He is shortly intercepted by the human ball of energy that is Kim Taehyung who is followed shortly by Jeon Jungkook. Taehyung nearly takes Jimin off his feet when he collides with his best friend before being pulled off by his boyfriend like he was some sort of squid. It could at times, still be a tad awkward between Minho and the pair despite Minho being incredibly in love with Jinki. Jungkook was very territorial and he was not known for keeping his temper in check so nine times out of ten Minho kept his distance to appease everyone. Jinki wraps a tight arm around Minho’s waist and steals a sip of his champagne.

                “Where are Yoongi-hyung and Hobi-hyung?”

                Jimin looks mildly confused and it actually quite an adorable look on the younger. “Ah, believe it or not, he’s dancing with Hobi-hyung.” Jungkook’s arm tightens around Taehyung’s waist to force the other to stop squirming to get back to hug Jimin. Taemin is almost surprised when Jimin leans back against his seat and steadies himself with a hand of Taemin’s shoulder. “So, how’s the engaged life?” Taemin is thankful that the question is not directed to them and is instead directed toward Jonghyun and Kibum who are five seconds from making out like prepubescent teenagers.

                “Ah, it’s not all bad.” Kibum brushes a piece of Jonghyun’s hair from his forehead with a delicate hand which Jonghyun gratefully captures to press a kiss to. “Jongie and I have been together for so long it’s easy to forget we haven’t be engaged for long.”

                “It’s the same for us.”

                Kibum offers Jin a relaxed smile and stands up to admire the man’s ring. Namjoon had expensive taste. The ring was flashy and timeless just like Jin. “Yah, Jongie why couldn’t you have picked such a pretty ring! I want one like this! Maybe you should take Namjoon shopping with you for the wedding bands!” Jin laughs brightly at the whining tone that had instantly colored Kibum’s voice as he turned the younger man’s hand back and forth to make the ring sparkle. Jimin’s own band was simple and startling pure of any flashing gemstones despite how much his friends had pushed for him to demand them. Taemin had picked the ring to have a matching necklace and bracelet while in Europe after finding out that his fiancé would be Jimin. He knew the younger enough to know that flashy things didn’t catch his interest. He preferred simplistic one with a timeless sort of vibe that he could wear every single day inconspicuously. Taemin would happily spoil the younger, however, and buy him anything that he asked for once they were married; not that Jimin fully knew that.

                “Yeah, yeah Bummie. I already knew that.”

                “Don’t be mean to me you big dinosaur.”

                “Now, now.” Minho holds up his hands as Kibum pokes his tongue out at his fiancé. “Let’s not start name calling until you’re both at least six glasses of champagne in. I really don’t need to be witness to your odd foreplay.”

                “Yes, because you and Jinki-hyung are any better.” Their table falls silent and turns their gazes to Jimin who is sipping his third glass of champagne leisurely and leaning more solidly against Taemin who had an arm around his waist steadying him. “I’ve seen that and let me tell you it is not something I can un-see.”  

                Taemin laughs softly at the dusting of red that rises on both of his hyungs’ cheeks. Jimin happily slides into the seat beside Taemin but continues to lean close to his fiancé. Perhaps he has the same thought process about tonight as the other. They might as well make the most out of it if it doesn’t last. “Jimin-ah, I’m going to get something more to drink, shall I get you another glass as well?” Jimin’s body shivers slightly at the soft breath of Taemin’s voice in his ear as their friends talk some more about them.

                “Ah, no. No, I’m fine.”

                Taemin smiles dazzlingly at Jimin before extracting himself from their tangle of space and excusing himself from the table. Jimin is slightly dazed by all of the close touches of the night that he can still feel like fire in his skin. Or was it the champagne? Maybe a bit of both.

                “So, Jimin-ah, how is everything between you two?”

                Jimin turns his surprised gaze to Namjoon who is watching Taemin’s retreating figured. The rest of the group have their eyes turned to him waiting for his reply. “Well, as expected I suppose. We’ve still got a few things to work out but who doesn’t, right?” Jimi rubs at the back of his neck lightly, a habit he picked up from Jungkook far too long ago.  “There’s been some speculation but our parents haven’t confirmed anything to the press yet about our engagement so we’re sort of waiting for that to come out. Other than that, things are moving along fairly well.”

                “I wasn’t asking about it business wise and you know that Jimin.”

                “We’re…I don’t know.” He felt that lingering sense of the unknown filling his chest. He and Taemin hadn’t talked much on the topic of their argument in Busan and neither really knew where they stood anymore. It was like they were waiting for a catalyst or something to start a reaction. “I wouldn’t say it was a fight so much as we had a very heated discussion in Busan and now things are at an impasse. But, it’s not bad. Not really. We’ve been getting lunch and dinner and just randomly hanging out the past week or so. It’s nice.”

                Jimin shrugs not knowing much else to say in lieu of actually explaining that they fought about wanted the marriage or not. He did not necessarily feel the need to share that aspect of their discussion with his hyungs. “Don’t worry Jiminie. Things will turn out. Taemin-ah isn’t someone who lets things go for too long. Besides we know it’s hard to believe but he’s in it for the long run now. If he agreed then he agreed. Don’t doubt that.” Jimin nods at Jonghyun’s words about his favorite dongsaeng.

                “What the fuck is that asshole doing here?”

                At Kibum’s furious snarl the entire table looks to the older man who looks downright disgusted by what he is seeing. Jimin follows his line of sight to notice his fiancé looking a tad stiff and uncomfortable while taking with another man. He was only a small bit taller than Taemin but broader built. His features were sort of regal and soft even with a very manly slicked back style of hair and tailored suit on. He was undeniably handsome and it appeared as if he knew it.

                “Who is that?”

                Jimin was thankful that their maknae was as curious as he was because he didn’t want to have to ask. Just seeing the two of them together made something unfurl in his gut that he did not like. They looked good together. The other man was around the same height and looked like he came from money. He had an easy smile and a way about him that shined nearly as bright as Taemin did.  Jimin always wondered if the older boy likes someone like that more than someone like Jimin who was shorter and softer and all around a genuinely bubbly person. Jimin didn’t command a room despite his sort stature like Yoongi could. He drew the eye of course but only because of how unbelievably pretty he looked.

                “That is Cho Kyuhyun. He’s Heechul-hyung’s group of friends’ maknae and Taeminie’s ex.” The four hyungs who had grown up with Taemin frown heavily as Kibum speaks and there is a shocking amount of disdain for the man as he does speak. “Unfortunately.”

                “Fucking piece of shit.” Jinki being vocal was surprisingly shocking to everyone involved in the conversation. “He fucked around with Taemin’s head for two years and then when Taemin actually gave in he took his fucking innocence and left him for one of his hyungs. Taemin was always just a game to him; a conquest. Nothing more.”

                Jimin frowns as the other man, whom he had not taken his eyes off of, reaches out to touch his fiancé’s arm. Taemin frowns lightly and moves away looking uncomfortable. If there was one thing that Jimin learned from Yoongi in their years of being friends it was possessiveness. If someone was his then they were fucking his and he would tear apart anyone who dared to think otherwise. Minho almost chokes on his champagne when Jimin pushes his chair out harshly. The small man has a considerably sexy sway to his hips as he approaches the two men. Taehyung sighs softly and nudges Jungkook. Jungkook sighs catching Kibum’s attention.

                “He done fucked up.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Jiminie is incredibly possessive of what is his and Lee Taemin is his.”

                They watch as Jimin finally reaches the pair and sidles up to his fiancé and presses a lingering kiss to Taemin’s lips seductively. Taemin’s arm falls around Jimin’s waist pulling him into his body tightly and Minho can almost hear the smugness in Taemin’s voice from here as he introduced his ex to his delectable fiancé. When Kyuhyun politely excuses himself realizing he’s getting nowhere fat they are all surprised when Jimin turns on Taemin and pulls him down into a fiercely territorial kiss that made them a tad uncomfortable to witness.

                “Damn. Someone is getting laid tonight.”


	8. This. Us. You. Everything.

                The wall that he slams into is cold and rough against his back and he inwardly cringed at the beautiful jacket he was wearing. The rest of him, however, was happily enthralled with the possessive hand gripping like steel to his ass and the lips plundering his mouth like it contained the last breath of air in the world and the man before him was in desperate need for oxygen. His fingers wrapped in silken hair only to drop and scrape at the nape of the older man’s neck when rough hands grab his ass more firmly to heave him further up the wall.

                “God, you’re fucking gorgeous when you’re possessive.” Lips drop down his neck and he knows there is going to be a bruise on his head from how hard he tosses it back. “It makes me want to fucking wreck you…to claim you.” Jimin can feel the sense of urgency in his voice as if this really was the last night they’d be together. It made him want to prove that this was everything he wanted.

                “I’m yours hyung.”

                Jimin drops his jaw down to stare directly into Taemin’s beautiful eyes which had widened at the serious tone that had taken over the once heated space between them.

                “What?”

                “I’m yours. To do with as you please. To fuck as you please. To lo- to love as you please.” Jimin swallows thickly around the lump in his throat at that words. He knew… knew Taemin had a plethora of things to get off his chest but he couldn’t wait for the other. He needed to lay himself bare and express that he wants this- this whatever the hell it is that they have. He wants to be loved and to stop playing this reckless game. “To hurt and break as you please. Regardless; I’m yours. Always.”

                Jimin’s legs fall as Taemin drops his ass and cups his face with the most tender of touches. Strong thumbs brush across the tops of his cheeks before a warm mouth is covering his once again. This was different somehow; in some unexplainable way. This kiss felt like there was a thousand and one things between them that could not be properly articulated. It stole his breath away and left him gasping for air. Dark eyes meet his in a stare that felt like it was burning holes through him only to fill them back up with bits and pieces of himself.

                “I love you.” Jimin fights back the burn behind his eyes and continues to stare at the older male patiently. He wanted- no needed to hear every last word that left the older man’s mouth in broken whispers and soft words. “God do I love you. From the moment, I saw your face I wanted to be the only person standing in your line of sight. You- you awoke this possessiveness in me that no one ever could before. You made me want to do stupid crazy things and play games with you that I would never have given into for anyone else. When my parents told me that it was you…” Taemin trails off at a loss for words and Jimin doesn’t break the silence. They simply gaze at each other with only the muted background noise of the gala playing around them. The gardens were dark and desolate without many people venturing into their depths. “I was so ungodly happy that it was you. I wouldn’t- I wouldn’t have agreed to anyone else but you.”

                Jimin reaches up with shaking hands to brush cool fingers across Taemin’s cheekbone as his heart thunders in his chest. “So…you want this? Us? Me?” The last word was whisper so softly that it felt like it was just a whisper in the wind. They were standing just a breath’s width away and it was heavenly to be able to stand this close without his heart aching.

                “Yes. This. Us. You. Everything. I want it all.” Taemin presses a lingering kiss on Jimin’s lips with his fingers still gripping onto Jimin’s jaw and cheeks like it was a lifeline. Jimin can only hold steadfast to the lapels of the older man’s jacket. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life than I want you.” The words were murmured so close to Jimin’s lip that every movement of Taemin’s lips felt like kisses. Jimin finally breaks and slams into his lover pressing desperate kiss after kiss to the older man’s lips as his fingers wrap snuggly around Taemin’s shoulders.

                Jimin pulls away with a happy little grin and reaches up to brush his hands through Taemin’s hair. “As much as I like to be out in the cold, pressed up again the wall, kissing you…I don’t think our parents would be pleased if we skipped out on the whole gala. Come on, hyung.” Jimin reaches down and laces their fingers together with a small blush before leading them back into the maze of hallways that they had both surely memorized years ago.

                Their friends are still talking and mingling like nothing had happened when they sit back down. The dance floor is crowded and there is a slower softer tune playing now meant for actual slow dancing, not the swaying most children do now. Minho glances their way while absorbed in a conversation about something or another with Jungkook. They both must be several drinks in to be talking so easily. Minho does seem happily pleased that Jimin actually sits on Taemin’s knee and curls into his warmth rather than sitting in separate chairs. They both looked lost in their own little world surrounded by only one another.

                “To be young and in love like that again.”

                Minho chuckles at the soft sigh from behind him while deft fingers trace the contours of his abs through his shirt. “Yeah because we’re certainly old and in love.” Jinki chuckles and drops a loving kiss to the back of his neck where he simply remains to hook his chin over Minho’s shoulder. His warm lips are brushing against the sharp lines of Minho’s jaw like they would were the pair in bed and he was worshipping the younger boy. Minho returns to his conversation with Jungkook only to notice that Taehyung had returned with drinks for them and was fixing Jungkook’s bangs with ease as he slides comfortably between the youngest’s legs.

                “Still playing games, I see.”

                Their heads turn sharply at the voice that for most they haven’t heard in a few years. Jongin was a few skin shades darker from being in Los Angeles for the past year and a half and Kyungsoo was still attached to his side with a cool expression. Los Angeles had been the best thing to happen to the pair who had run from Seoul when their parents found out about their relationship.

                “Jongin!” Taemin grins brightly at his childhood best friend’s taunting. Jimin looked slightly bewildered but didn’t move much from his spot on Taemin’s leg. Jimin knew of Kim Jongin, everyone did it wasn’t hard considering they ran in the same circles. He had gone by Kai for most of their lives a silly nickname he had apparently gotten as a child. Jimin just wasn’t sure where his fiancé and the other man intersected somewhere along the way. “How is Los Angeles? Kyungsoo-hyung how are you? Are you married yet?”

                Taemin holds Jimin just a bit tighter around the waist and hooks his chin on Jimin’s shoulder. “Yeah, we are. Have your magic hands stopped long enough for you not to lose this one? I heard through the grapevine that there may just be an engagement announcement brewing.” Jongin glances at the way they were ensnared in one another and raises his brow. Had someone told him that the pair would last past a few fucks two years ago he would have laughed in their faced but seeing them now, he had no doubts.

                Jongin had known Taemin since they were three. They had grown up together. Taemin had always been a bit of a bubbly and scatter-brained boy. He trusted people easily and looked for the best in everyone. He could often be quite naive. For those reasons Jongin and the others tried to protect him and when Taemin initially showed interest in Park Jimin, Jongin, like the rest of their friends, had tried to steer his friend away from the trouble that was Park Jimin. He told him all the unsavory stories about the boy and everything Jimin and Yoongi had gotten up to for years but Taemin would hear none of it. The man had fallen quickly and hard.

                At the time Jongin was still hiding his relationship from his parents and his friendship and love for Kyungsoo were suffering because of it so he didn’t realize before it was too late that his best friend had fallen in love with the young player. Jongin had been so infuriated when Taemin called him a mess two years ago sobbing after his going away party. He thought Jimin had just been playing around and didn’t dare hear Taemin’s excuses for the younger boy. He wanted nothing more than to find Jimin and make him see sense but then his parents found out about him and Kyungsoo. Taemin was leaving and their hyungs were trying to figure out their own rocky relationships. Minho was still fucking around with Jimin’s friend and Jinki had been messing around with some older people that were friends of Heechul.

                Taemin had left and Jimin had seemingly disappeared from the spotlight when things finally settled down and eventually Jongin left before he could find the younger boy and properly talk to him. Kyungsoo had calmed his ire and told him that little birdies had whispered that Park Jimin was not faring much better than Taemin had been. Now, he was happy to see them both happy. Leaving one another had obviously hurt a great deal.

                “Hmm, oh well yes I suppose that should be in order soon. My grandfather wants to announce it this coming week.” Jongin is actually quite surprised by how sweet and gentle the tone of Jimin’s voice was. He looked almost soft and squishy. Jongin had heard too many horror stories about the boy who loved them and left them just as quickly that he never stayed around long enough to talk to the boy properly. “Though I’m sure with us coming here together there will already be speculations.”

                “I’m not sure I’ve ever properly introduced myself but I’m Jongin.” Park Jimin offers up an entirely too small hand for his body and smiles dazzlingly up at Jongin. He almost looked like a cute little baby chick. We this really the same man that toyed around with people’s heart both young and old? “Taemin and I grew up together. We’ve been best friends for a really long time.”  

                “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you properly!” Jimin giggles sweetly and curls in closer to Taemin who is shifting the younger boy slightly to reach for a drink on the table. “I’ve heard about you of course but I never could quite catch you to meet you. When I heard about what happened to you two I sincerely hoped you stayed together. At our age, at the time at least, it was nice seeing two people committed to one another so deeply.”

                “Jongin and Kyungsoo-hyung have been in love with each other since we were five.” Taemin tucks a curl of grey hair away from Jimin’s eyes and offers a seat to his two friends. Kyungsoo instantly leans against Jongin’s sides and Jongin tosses an arm around his shoulders at the back of the chair. Their motions were so effortless. “Bullies were picking on Jongin on the playground while I was helping Minho hyung pick twigs out of Key-hyung’s hair. Kyungsoo came right up and punched the bullies right in the face.”               

                Jimin glances at the smaller male who was tucked safely into Jongin’s side. He didn’t look all that intimidating but Jimin could see it. He almost reminded Jimin of Yoongi. “You should have seen that brat’s face. Jongin looked like someone had just opened heaven for him. He wouldn’t stop following Kyungsoo around for like a month.” Key laughs heartily at the memory and Jimin smiles sweetly at them. He’d never actually known much about Taemin’s group of friends prior to meeting Taemin properly two years ago. His little circle had just known that Jongin and Kyungsoo were an item and that they were really off limits; like more off-limits than Namjoon and Seokjin or Kibum and Jonghyun. He was really glad that loves like their actually lasted. It made him hopeful that he and Taemin would actually work out. They might be the last of their friend to finally get their shit together but Jimin was nothing if not always fashionably late.


End file.
